June 25, 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn Introduction On this day in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S. government to confine their people to reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills, the U.S. Army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded the region. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservations and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana. By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Native Americans had gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River–which they called the Greasy Grass–in defiance of a U.S. War Department order to return to their reservations or risk being attacked. In mid-June, three columns of U.S. soldiers lined up against the camp and prepared to march.

A force of 1,200 Native Americans turned back the first column on June 17. Five days later, General Alfred Terry ordered Custer’s 7th Cavalry to scout ahead for enemy troops. On the morning of June 25, Custer drew near the camp and decided to press on ahead rather than wait for reinforcements. At mid-day, Custer’s 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer’s desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed. Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and every last one of his soldier were dead. The Battle of Little Bighorn–also called Custer’s Last Stand–marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War.

The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations. Article Details: June 25, 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn Author June 25, 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn URL Battle of the Little Bighorn - Native American History - HISTORY.com Battle of the Little Bighorn Battle of the Little Bighorn Author Battle of the Little Bighorn URL A+E Networks Introduction The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S.

Army, including Custer and his 7th Calvary, was dispatched to confront them. Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull (c.1831-90) at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand. Google Battle of the Little Bighorn: Mounting Tensions Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (c.1840-77), leaders of the Sioux on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S. government to confine their people to reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills, the U.S. Army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded the region. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservations and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana . By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Native Americans had gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River–which they called the Greasy Grass–in defiance of a U.S. War Department order to return to their reservations or risk being attacked.

Did You Know? Several members ofGeorge Armstrong Custer's family were alsokilled at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, including two of his brothers, his brother-in-law and a nephew. In mid-June, three columns of U.S. soldiers lined up against the camp and prepared to march. A force of 1,200 Native Americans turned back the first column on June 17. Five days later, General Alfred Terry ordered George Custer’s 7th Cavalry to scout ahead for enemy troops. On the morning of June 25, Custer drew near the camp and decided to press on ahead rather than wait for reinforcements. Battle of the Little Bighorn: Custer’s Last Stand At mid-day on June 25, Custer’s 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer’s desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed.

Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and all of his soldiers were dead. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer’s Last Stand, marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The demise of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations. Tags 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn On this day in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana's Little Bighorn River. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S.

government to confine their people to reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered in South Dakota's Black Hills, the U.S. Army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded the region. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservations and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana. By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Native Americans had gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River--which they called the Greasy Grass--in defiance of a U.S. War Department order to return to their reservations or risk being attacked. In mid-June, three columns of U.S. soldiers lined up against the camp and prepared to march. A force of 1,200 Native Americans turned back the first column on June 17. Five days later, General Alfred Terry ordered Custer's 7th Cavalry to scout ahead for enemy troops. On the morning of June 25, Custer drew near the camp and decided to press on ahead rather than wait for reinforcements. At mid-day, Custer's 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley.

Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer's desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed. Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and every last one of his soldier were dead. The Battle of Little Bighorn--also called Custer's Last Stand--marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

Irish whose luck ran out at Little Bighorn Ray O'Hanlon ï¿½BOYS hold your horses, there are plenty down there for us all.ï¿½ The last recorded words of General George Armstrong Custer say a lot about the man: Dashing and daring, brave and prone to snap decisions. On a hot summerï¿½s day 123 years ago, Custer made one of those quick decisions that had earlier turned him into civil war hero. But sooner or later your luck runs out. Sunday, June 25 1876 was the day that ï¿½Custerï¿½s luckï¿½ it was a recognized phenomenon in the US military at the time ran out completely. So did the luck of the Irish dozens of Seventh Cavalry troopers, Irish-born and Irish-American, riding with Custer over the rolling plains of Montana territory on that fateful day. The battle of the Little Bighorn was not a signal collision of two massed forces as depicted in the Old Errol Flynn classic They Died With Their Boots On.

It was in fact a series of running fights, standoffs and encirclements stretching over five miles from what is today known as Reno Hill to Custerï¿½s own Last Stand Hill, both of them high points at opposite ends of a string of bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River. Just prior to his demise, Custer had split his command into three units as he prepared to ensnare what turned out to be the largest concentration of Native American fighting power ever to face the US Army. The first assault against the joint Sioux and Cheyenne encampment was made shortly after noon by three companies, 140 officers and men, led by Major Marcus Reno. Renoï¿½s men charged along the valley floor towards one end of the camp. They were thrown back with the survivors having to scramble for their lives to the top of the hill which still bears Renoï¿½s name. Captain Frederick Benteen, with three companies comprising about 125 men, initially stayed to the rear of the fight. Custer, with five companies, more than 200 men, advanced along the ridgeline that dominated the river valley on its eastern side.

He further divided this force into two groups, one of them led by Co Carlow-born Captain Myles Keogh. The plan, what there was of one, went badly from the start. The number of warriors in the camp was far greater than expected. In a testimony to the drawing power of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall and other prominent Sioux and Cheyenne chiefs, there were between 2000 and 3000 fighting men biding their time by the river called Greasy Grass by the Sioux. Custer was about to learn that bad tactics can be severely compounded when the enemy outnumbers you by four or five to one. The total strength of Custerï¿½s regiment in the summer of 1876 was in the region of 840 officers and men. By some estimates, more than 250 of them were Irish-born, Irish American or of Irish descent having been born in Britain. Many of the Irish-Americans were first generation Americans with Irish immigrant parents living in the big cities back east. In terms of the Irish-born under Custer on June 25th, the estimated figure is 128 officers, non-commissioned officers and cavalry troopers.

Not all the regimentï¿½s strength rode into the valley of the Little Bighorn that Sunday. Some were back in Fort Lincoln in what is today North Dakota. Others, the regimental band included, were camped out some distance away by the Powder River. In all, just over 600 rode behind Custer to the battle. Why so many Irishmen were out west in uniform can be traced to a variety of reasons. Myles Keogh was a professional soldier who had fought in the Papal Army in Europe and with the victorious union side in the American civil war. ï¿½See also - ï¿½ Sergeant Jeremiah Finley was rumoured to be on the run having murdered someone back in Ireland. He too had served in the civil war and later in Canada. He had come south again in 1868 and joined the Seventh Cavalry. He was a tailor by training and had made the buckskin jacket that Custer wore as he galloped to his final rendezvous with death. Finley also died in the battle. He was later found beside his dead mount Carlo. Man and horse had been shot full of arrows. Privates Patrick Golden and Richard Farrell didnï¿½t make it either.

Golden was shot while firing from a shallow rifle pit on the bluff defended by Reno, and now also by the late-arriving Benteen who was in charge of pack mules and wagons. Farrell died in a ravine at the other end of the battlefield, close to where Custer went down. Private Thomas Downing was 20-years-old but already the father of a child back in Iowa. He fancied soldiering over fatherhood. It was a bad choice. Attached to Myles Keoghï¿½s Company 1, Downing was killed on Calhoun Hill, a position named after Lieutenant James Calhoun, Custerï¿½s brother-in-law. Sergeant Robert Hughes had the ultimately dubious honour of carrying Custerï¿½s personal flag, or guidon. As such, he was a particularly prominent target whose fate was quickly sealed. Some of the Irish could count on a little luck though. Trooper Thomas Oï¿½Neill was cut off in the confusion following the failed Reno charge on the village. He hid in the groves of Cottonwood trees fringing the riverbank before managing to make his way up the bluff to Renoï¿½s hilltop position after dark.

In all however, over 30 Irish-born members of the Seventh Cavalry perished, the most prominent being Keogh, who was later buried in upstate New York. There is irony in the encounter between Irishmen who had forsaken a land not theirs literally the case in the immediate post-famine years and the tribes of the American west who were being forced off the land they didnï¿½t recognise ownership as a concept by the rapid encroachment of the white man. But few, if any, of the Irish at the Little Bighorn had time to consider mere irony as the agents of death, painted, screaming and angry, came riding at them, fast and head-on. Here are the names of the Irish men who fought and died either during or shortly after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Their details are displayed in the following format: NAME - AGE - RANK - COMPANY - COUNTY - OCCUP - PERSONAL DETAILS Atcheson, Thomas 41 Private F Antrim Unknown 5' 5ï¿½" in height, hazel eyes, dark hair Barry, John 27 Private I Waterford Laborer 5'7ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, dark hair, ruddy complexion Boyle, Owen 33 Private E Waterford Soldier 5'6" in height, grey eyes, dark hair, fair complexion Bruce, Patrick 31 Private F Cork Unknown 5'7" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion Bustard, James 30 Sergeant I Donegal Soldier 5'6ï¿½" in height, hazel eyes, light hair, fair complexion Carney, James 33 Private F Westmeath Unknown 5'4ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, black hair, dark complexion Cashan, William 31 Sergeant L Queen's County Soldier 5'9" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Connor, Edward 30 Private E Clare Unknown 5'8ï¿½" in height

, hazel eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion Considine, Martin* 28 Sergeant G Clare Unknown 5'7ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Cooney, David** 28 Private I Cork Laborer 5'5ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, dark hair, fair complexion (Promoted Sergeant on June 28th) Downing, Thomas 24 Private I Limerick Laborer 5'8ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, sandy hair, florid complexion Drinan, James* 23 Private A Cork Laborer 5'7ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, light brown hair, dark complexion Driscoll, Edward 25 Private I Waterford Laborer 5'6" in height, hazel eyes, light hair, light complexion Eagan, Thomas 28 Corporal E Unknown Laborer 5'5ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, sandy hair, light complexion Farrell, Richard 25 Private E Dublin Laborer 5'8ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Finley, Jeremiah 35 Sergeant C Tipperary

 Laborer 5'7" in height, grey eyes, brown hair, light complexion (He made Custer's buckskin jacket.) Golden, Patrick* 26 Private D Sligo Slater 5'9ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Graham, Charles 39 Private L Tyrone Unknown 5'6ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, florid complexion Griffin, Patrick 28 Private C Kerry Unknown 5'9" in height, black eyes, dark hair, ruddy complexion Henderson, John 37 Private E Cork Unknown 5'7ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, light hair, fair complexion Hughes, Robert H 36 Sergeant K Dublin Unknown 5'9" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, fair complexion (Carried Custer's battle standard) Kavanagh, Thomas G 31 Private L Dublin Farmer 5'11ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, red hair, ruddy complexion Kelly, Patrick 35 Private I Mayo Unknown 5'5" in height, grey eyes, sandy hair, fair complexion Kenney, Michael 26 1st Sergeant F Galway

 Soldier 5'7ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Keogh, Myles W 36 Captain I Carlow Soldier The only Irishborn officer, 2nd-in-command to Custer himself in the ill-fated battalion Mahoney, Bartholomew 30 Private L Cork Teamster 5'10" in height, hazel eyes, dark hair, sallow complexion Martin, James* 28 Corporal G Kildare Laborer 5'5" in height, grey eyes, brown hair, fair complexion McElroy, Thomas 31 Trumpeter E Tipperary Musician 5'5ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, dark hair, ruddy complexion McIlhargey, Archibald 31 Private I Antrim Unknown 5'5" in height, brown eyes, black hair, dark complexion Mitchell, John 34 Private I Galway Unknown 5'6ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion O'Connell, David 32 Private L Cork Unknown 5'7ï¿½" in height, dark eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion O'Connor, Patrick

 25 Private E Longford Shoemaker 5'5ï¿½" in height, blue eyes, light hair, fair complexion Shanahan, John* 23 Private G Unknown Laborer 5'7" in height, blue eyes, brown hair, fair complexion Smith, James 34 Private E Tipperary Unknown 5'6" in height, hazel eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion Sullivan, John* 25 Private A Dublin Laborer 5'6ï¿½" in height, grey eyes, brown hair, medium complexion * Killed with Reno battalion ** Died later of wounds received in the battle The Garryowen Connection ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ GARRYOWEN Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed But join with me, each jovial blade Come, drink and sing and lend your aid To help me with the chorus: cho: Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale And pay the reckoning on the nail; No man for debt shall go to jail From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun, We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run We are the boys no man dares dun If he regards a whole skin. Our hearts so stout have got no fame For soon 'tis known from whence we came Where'er we go they fear the name Of Garryowen in glory. Note: Official marching tune of Custer's Seventh Cavalry. Garryowen, or Owen's Garden, is a suburb of Limerick. Source: Garryowen became the marching tune for the 69th Infantry Regiment , New York Militia, (the famed "Fighting 69th" ) in the mid-1800s. The "Fighting 69th" adopted Garry Owen before the Civil War and recently brought it back to combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom It later became the marching tune for the US 7th Cavalry Regiment during the late 1800s. The tune was a favorite of General George Armstrong Custer and became the official air of the Regiment in 1867. According to legend it was the last tune played before the Battle of the Little Bighorn .

The name of the tune has become a part of the regiment, the words Garry Owen are part of the regimental crest. Battle of the Little Bighorn - Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) Explore This Park Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought along the ridges, steep bluffs, and ravines of the Little Bighorn River, in south central Montana on June 25-26, 1876. The combatants were warriors of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, battling men of the 7th Regiment of the U.S. Cavalry. The Battle of the Little Bighorn has come to symbolize the clash of two vastly dissimilar cultures: the buffalo/horse culture of the northern plains tribes, and the highly industrial/agricultural based culture of the U.S., which was advancing primarily from the east coast. This battle was not an isolated soldier versus warrior confrontation, but part of a much larger strategic campaign designed to force the capitulation of the nonreservation Lakota and Cheyenne.

In 1868, many Lakota leaders agreed to a treaty, known as the Fort Laramie Treaty that created a large reservation in the western half of present day South Dakota. They further agreed to give up their nomadic life which often brought them into conflict with other tribes in the region, with settlers, and with railroad surveys. Agreeing to the treaty meant accepting a more stationary life, and relying on government supplied subsidies. Lakota leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse rejected the reservation system. Likewise many roving bands of hunters and warriors did not sign the 1868 treaty, and consequently, felt no obligation to conform to its restrictions, or to limit their hunting to the unceded hunting land assigned by the treaty. Their sporadic forays off the set aside lands brought them into conflict with settlers and enemy tribes outside the treaty boundaries. Tension between the U.S. and the Lakota escalated in 1874, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was ordered to make an exploration of the Black Hills inside the boundary of the Great Sioux Reservation. Custer was to map the area, locate a suitable site for a future military post, and to make note of the natural resources.

During the expedition, professional geologists discovered deposits of gold. Word of the discovery of mineral wealth caused an invasion of miners and entrepreneurs to the Black Hills in direct violation of the treaty of 1868. The U.S. negotiated with the Lakota to purchase the Black Hills, but the offered price was rejected by the Lakota. The climax came in the winter of 1875, when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs issued an ultimatum requiring all Sioux to report to a reservation by January 31, 1876. The deadline came with virtually no response from the Indians, and matters were handed to the military. General Philip Sheridan, commander of the Military Division of the Missouri, devised a strategy that committed several thousand troops to find and to engage the Lakota and Cheyenne, who now were considered "hostile", with the goal of forcing their return to the Great Sioux Reservation. The campaign was set in motion in March, 1876, when the Montana column, a 450 man force of combined cavalry and infantry commanded by Colonel John Gibbon, marched out of Fort Ellis near Bozeman Montana.

A second force, numbering about 1,000 cavalry and infantry and commanded by General George Crook, was launched during the last week of May, from Fort Fetterman in central Wyoming. In the middle of May, a third force, under the command of General Alfred Terry, marched from Fort Abraham Lincoln, Bismarck, Dakota Territory, with a command comprised of 879 men. The bulk of this force was the 7th Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. It was expected that any one of these three forces would be able to deal with the 800-1,500 warriors they likely were to encounter. The three commands of Gibbon, Crook, and Terry were not expected to launch a coordinated attack on a specific Indian village at a known location. Inadequate, slow, and often unpredictable communications hampered the army's coordination of its expeditionary forces. Furthermore, it must be remembered that their nomadic hunting put the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies constantly on the move.

No officer or scout could be certain how long a village might remain stationary, or which direction the tribe might choose to go in search of food, water, and grazing areas for their horses. The tribes had come together for a variety of reasons. The well watered region of the Powder, Rosebud, Bighorn, and Yellowstone rivers was a productive hunting ground. The tribes regularly gathered in large numbers during the spring to celebrate their annual sun dance ceremony. The sun dance ceremony had occurred about two weeks earlier near present day Lame Deer, Montana. During the ceremony, Sitting Bull received a vision of soldiers falling upside down into his village. He prophesized there soon would be a great victory for his people. On the morning of June 25, the camp was ripe with rumors about soldiers on the other side of the Wolf Mountains, 15 miles to the east, yet few people paid any attention. In the words of Low Dog, an Oglala Sioux, "I did not think anyone would come and attack us so strong as we were." On June 22, General Terry decided to detach Custer and his 7th Cavalry to make a wide flanking march and approach the Indians from the east and south.

Custer was to act as the hammer, and prevent the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies from slipping away and scattering, a common fear expressed by government and military authorities. General Terry and Colonel Gibbon, with infantry and cavalry, would approach from the north to act as a blocking force or anvil in support of Custer's far ranging movements toward the headwaters of the Tongue and Little Bighorn Rivers. The Indians, who were thought to be camped somewhere along the Little Bighorn River, "would be so completely enclosed as to make their escape virtually impossible". On the evening of June 24, Custer established a night camp twenty-five miles east of where the fateful battle would take place on June 25-26. The Crow and Arikara scouts were sent ahead, seeking actionable intelligence about the direction and location of the combining Lakota and Cheyenne. The returning scouts reported that the trail indicated the village turned west toward the Little Bighorn River and was encamped about twenty-five miles west of the June 24 camp. Custer ordered a night march that followed the route that the village took as it crossed to the Little Bighorn River valley.

Early on the morning of June 25, the 7th Cavalry Regiment was positioned near the Wolf Mountains about twelve miles distant from the Lakota/Cheyenne encampment along the Little Bighorn River. Today, historians estimate the village numbered 8,000, with a warrior force of 1,500-1,800 men. Custer's initial plan had been to conceal his regiment in the Wolf Mountains through June 25th, which would allow his Crow and Arikara scouts time to locate the Sioux and Cheyenne village. Custer then planned to make a night march, and launch an attack at dawn on June 26; however, the scouts reported the regiment's presence had been detected by Lakota or Cheyenne warriors. Custer, judging the element of surprise to have been lost, feared the inhabitants would attack or scatter into the rugged landscape, causing the failure of the Army's campaign. Custer ordered an immediate advance to engage the village and its warrior force.

At the Wolf Mountain location, Custer ordered a division of the regiment into four segments: the pack train with ammunition and supplies, a three company force (125) commanded by Captain Frederick Benteen, a three company force (140) commanded by Major Marcus Reno and a five company force (210) commanded by Custer. Benteen was ordered to march southwest, on a left oblique, with the objective of locating any Indians, "pitch into anything" he found, and send word to Custer. Custer and Reno's advance placed them in proximity to the village, but still out of view. When it was reported that the village was scattering, Custer ordered Reno to lead his 140 man battalion, plus the Arikara scouts, and to "pitch into what was ahead" with the assurance that he would "be supported by the whole outfit". The Lakota and Cheyenne village lay in the broad river valley bottom, just west of the Little Bighorn River. As instructed by his commanding officer, Reno crossed the river about two miles south of the village and began advancing downstream toward its southern end. Though initially surprised, the warriors quickly rushed to fend off Reno's assault.

Reno halted his command, dismounted his troops and formed them into a skirmish line which began firing at the warriors who were advancing from the village. Mounted warriors pressed their attack against Reno's skirmish line and soon endangered his left flank. Reno withdrew to a stand of timber beside the river, which offered better protection. Eventually, Reno ordered a second retreat, this time to the bluffs east of the river. The Sioux and Cheyenne, likening the pursuit of retreating troops to a buffalo hunt, rode down the troopers. Soldiers at the rear of Reno's fleeing command incurred heavy casualties as warriors galloped alongside the fleeing troops and shot them at close range, or pulled them out of their saddles onto the ground. Reno's now shattered command recrossed the Little Bighorn River and struggled up steep bluffs to regroup atop high ground to the east of the valley fight. Benteen had found no evidence of Indians or their movement to the south, and had returned to the main column. He arrived on the bluffs in time to meet Reno's demoralized survivors. A messenger from Custer previously had delivered a written communication to Benteen that stated, "Come on. Big Village. Be Quick.

Bring Packs. P.S. Bring Packs." An effort was made to locate Custer after heavy gunfire was heard downstream. Led by Captain Weir's D Company, troops moved north in an attempt establish communication with Custer. Assembling on a high promontory (Weir Point) a mile and a half north of Reno's position, the troops could see clouds of dust and gun smoke covering the battlefield. Large numbers of warriors approaching from that direction forced the cavalry to withdraw to Reno Hill where the Indians held them under siege from the afternoon of June 25, until dusk on June 26. On the evening of June 26, the entire village began to move to the south. The next day the combined forces of Terry and Gibbon arrived in the valley bottom where the village had been encamped. The badly battered and defeated remnant of the 7th Cavalry was now relieved. Scouting parties, advancing ahead of General Terry's command, discovered the dead, naked, and mutilated bodies of Custer's command on the ridges east of the river. Exactly what happened to Custer's command never will be fully known.

From Indian accounts, archeological finds, and positions of bodies, historians can piece together the Custer portion of the battle, although many answers remain elusive. It is known that, after ordering Reno to charge the village, Custer rode northward along the bluffs until he reached a broad coulee known as Medicine Tail Coulee, a natural route leading down to the river and the village. Archeologial finds indicate some skirmishing occurred at Medicine Tail ford. For reasons not fully understood, the troops fell back and assembled on Calhoun Hill, a terrain feature on Battle Ridge. The warriors, after forcing Major Reno to retreat, now began to converge on Custer's maneuvering command as it forged north along what, today, is called Custer or Battle Ridge. Dismounting at the southern end of the ridge, companies C and L appear to have put up stiff resistance before being overwhelmed. Company I perished on the east side of the ridge in a large group, the survivors rushing toward the hill at the northwest end of the long ridge.

Company E may have attempted to drive warriors from the deep ravines on the west side of the ridge, before being consumed in fire and smoke in one of the very ravines they were trying to clear. Company F may have tried to fire at warriors on the flats below the National Cemetery before being driven to the Last Stand Site. About 40 to 50 men of the original 210 were cornered on the hill where the monument now stands. Hundreds of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors surrounded them. Toward the end of the fight, soldiers, some on foot, others on horseback, broke out in a desperate attempt to get away. All were pulled down and killed in a matter of minutes. The warriors quickly rushed to the top of the hill, cutting, clubbing, and stabbing the last of the wounded. Superior numbers and overwhelming firepower brought the Custer portion of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to a close. The battle was a momentary victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne. General Phil Sheridan now had the leverage to put more troops in the field.

Lakota Sioux hunting grounds were invaded by powerful Army expeditionary forces, determined to pacify the Northern Plains and to confine the Lakota and Cheyenne to reservations. Most of the declared "hostiles" had surrendered within one year of the fight, and the Black Hills were taken by the U.S. without compensation. Chief Sitting Bull | Little Big Horn Chief Sitting Bull Chief Sitting Bull Sitting Bull was born in what is now known as South Dakota in 1831 and joined his first war party at the age of 14. His father was a revered Sioux warrior named Returns-Again and from childhood Sitting Bull sought to live up to his father’s reputation. While he was considered “slow” at a young age, Sitting Bull killed his first buffalo at only 10-years-old and fought bravely in a war against a rival clan at the age of 14. Sitting-Bull grew into adulthood in a world where his very way of life was being threatened by encroaching American settlement. In 1863, Sitting Bull fought American soldiers for the first time. One year later, he would lead another campaign against U.S.

troops and his attack on Fort Rice in 1865 led to his being named Chief Sitting Bull of the Lakota nation in 1868. To this day he is arguably the most revered of all Native American Chiefs in recorded history. When gold was discovered on Sioux land, the U.S. government tabled a treaty with the tribe and allowed settlers to rush into Sioux territory. To make matters worse for the tribe, the government declared war on any Sioux who tried to prevent prospectors from taking over the land. Chief Sitting Bull refused to abide by the conditions, vowing to protect his land as well as his people. During a Sun Dance Ceremony on the Little Bighorn River, it is said Sitting Bull danced for 36 hours straight and had a vision of his people defeating the American army. He shared the vision with his people. Just a week later Chief Sitting Bull went up against General Custer in the epic Battle at Little Bighorn, laying waste to the general and more than 200 of his men. Humiliated by the defeat, the American government went after Sitting Bull with renowned vigor, and larger numbers.

Chief Sitting Bull was forced to lead his people to Canada, where they laid low for four years.He returned to Dakota territory in 1881 and was held as a prisoner for about two years. In 1885, Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show on the recommendation of his friend, sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The Sioux leader made a lot of money traveling with the show, but didn’t enjoy the performances or the way he was treated by some audience members. Sitting Bull decided to return to Dakota Territory and live among his people. He moved to a cabin by the Grand River near the place of his birth and lived his life on his own terms, rejecting Christianity and honoring Sioux traditions. In 1890, authorities ordered a group of police officers to arrest Sitting Bull based on his involvement with a group of Native Americans known as Ghost Dancers, who they believed were going to flee the reservation. Roughly 39 police officers and a few volunteers surrounded the chief’s cabin. Sitting bull was arrested and led outside his cabin – but refused to mount a horse as ordered.

When police used force, the other Sioux in the village grew enraged and one opened fire on police, who in turn shot Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876 The Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876 Printer Friendly Version >>> In late 1875, Sioux and Cheyenne Indians defiantly left their reservations, outraged over the continued intrusions of whites into their sacred lands in the Black Hills. They gathered in Montana with the great warrior Sitting Bull to fight for their lands. The following spring, two victories over the US Cavalry emboldened them to fight on in the summer of 1876. George Armstrong Custer To force the large Indian army back to the reservations, the Army dispatched three columns to attack in coordinated fashion, one of which contained Lt. Colonel George Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. Spotting the Sioux village about fifteen miles away along the Rosebud River on June 25, Custer also found a nearby group of about forty warriors. Ignoring orders to wait, he decided to attack before they could alert the main party. He did not realize that the number of warriors in the village numbered three times his strength.

Dividing his forces in three, Custer sent troops under Captain Frederick Benteen to prevent their escape through the upper valley of the Little Bighorn River. Major Marcus Reno was to pursue the group, cross the river, and charge the Indian village in a coordinated effort with the remaining troops under his command. He hoped to strike the Indian encampment at the northern and southern ends simultaneously, but made this decision without knowing what kind of terrain he would have to cross before making his assault. He belatedly discovered that he would have to negotiate a maze of bluffs and ravines to attack. Reno's squadron of 175 soldiers attacked the southern end. Quickly finding themselves in a desperate battle with little hope of any relief, Reno halted his charging men before they could be trapped, fought for ten minutes in dismounted formation, and then withdrew into the timber and brush along the river. When that position proved indefensible, they retreated uphill to the bluffs east of the river, pursued hotly by a mix of Cheyenne and Sioux. Just as they finished driving the soldiers out, the Indians found roughly 210 of Custer's men coming towards the other end of the village, taking the pressure off of Reno's men.

Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Sioux together crossed the river and slammed into the advancing soldiers, forcing them back to a long high ridge to the north. Meanwhile, another force, largely Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse's command, swiftly moved downstream and then doubled back in a sweeping arc, enveloping Custer and his men in a pincer move. They began pouring in gunfire and arrows. ADVERTISMENT As the Indians closed in, Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses and stack the carcasses to form a wall, but they provided little protection against bullets. In less than an hour, Custer and his men were killed in the worst American military disaster ever. After another day's fighting, Reno and Benteen's now united forces escaped when the Indians broke off the fight. They had learned that the other two columns of soldiers were coming towards them, so they fled. After the battle, the Indians came through and stripped the bodies and mutilated all the uniformed soldiers, believing that the soul of a mutilated body would be forced to walk the earth for all eternity and could not ascend to heaven. Inexplicably, they stripped Custer's body and cleaned it, but did not scalp or mutilate it.

He had been wearing buckskins instead of a blue uniform, and some believe that the Indians thought he was not a soldier and so, thinking he was an innocent, left him alone. Because his hair was cut short for battle, others think that he did not have enough hair to allow for a very good scalping. Immediately after the battle, the myth emerged that they left him alone out of respect for his fighting ability, but few participating Indians knew who he was to have been so respectful. To this day, no one knows the real reason. Sitting Bull 1878 Little Bighorn was the pinnacle of the Indians' power. They had achieved their greatest victory yet, but soon their tenuous union fell apart in the face of the white onslaught. Outraged over the death of a popular Civil War hero on the eve of the Centennial, the nation demanded and received harsh retribution. The Black Hills dispute was quickly settled by redrawing the boundary lines, placing the Black Hills outside the reservation and open to white settlement. Within a year, the Sioux nation was defeated and broken. "Custer's Last Stand" was their last stand as well.

Carnage at the Little Bighorn George Herendon served as a scout for the Seventh Cavalry - a civilian under contract with the army and attached to Major Reno's command. Herendon charged across the Little Bighorn River with Reno as the soldiers met an overwhelming force of Sioux streaming from their encampment. After the battle, Herendon told his story to a reporter from the New York Herald: "Reno took a steady gallop down the creek bottom three miles where it emptied into the Little Horn, and found a natural ford across the Little Horn River. He started to cross, when the scouts came back and called out to him to hold on, that the Sioux were coming in large numbers to meet him. He crossed over, however, formed his companies on the prairie in line of battle, and moved forward at a trot but soon took a gallop. "The Valley was about three fourth of a mile wide, on the left a line of low, round hills, and on the right the river bottom covered with a growth of cottonwood trees and bushes. After scattering shots were fired from the hills and a few from the river bottom and Reno's skirmishers returned the shots.

"He advanced about a mile from the ford to a line of timber on the right and dismounted his men to fight on foot. The horses were sent into the timber, and the men forward on the prairie and advanced toward the Indians. The Indians, mounted on ponies, came across the prairie and opened a heavy fire on the soldiers. After skirmishing for a few minutes Reno fell back to his horses in the timber. The Indians moved to his left and rear, evidently with the intention of cutting him off from the ford. "Reno ordered his men to mount and move through the timber, but as his men got into the saddle the Sioux, who had advanced in the timber, fired at close range and killed one soldier. Colonel Reno then commanded the men to dismount, and they did so, but he soon ordered them to mount again, and moved out on to the open prairie." Continued... "Retreat across the river" Good news for all us under-achievers: In 1861, Custer graduated from West Point at the bottom of his class. However, during the Civil War his skills at war propelled him to the temporary rank of brigadier general. He remains the youngest general in our history.

Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 during an attempt to arrest him by Indian Agency police. His death ignited the distrubance and subsequent massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Chawlasome: 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn World of Science and History Wednesday, June 25, 2008 1876 : Battle of Little Bighorn On this day in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana's Little Bighorn River. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S. government to confine their people to reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered in Montana's Black Hills, the U.S. Army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded the region. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservations and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana.

By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Native Americans had gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River--which they called the Greasy Grass--in defiance of a U.S. War Department order to return to their reservations or risk being attacked. In mid-June, three columns of U.S. soldiers lined up against the camp and prepared to march. A force of 1,200 Native Americans turned back the first column on June 17. Five days later, General Alfred Terry ordered Custer's 7th Cavalry to scout ahead for enemy troops. On the morning of June 25, Custer drew near the camp and decided to press on ahead rather than wait for reinforcements. At mid-day, Custer's 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer's desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed.

Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and every last one of his soldier were dead. The Battle of Little Bighorn--also called Custer's Last Stand--marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations. Posted by

Question: Which chief's vision led to the Sioux's victory at the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn?
Answer: Sitting Bull